Electro-mechanical oscillator and method for generating a signal
AssigneeMicrosemi Storage Solutions (U.S.), Inc.
InventorsHormoz Djahanshahi, Su-Tarn Lim
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An oscillator and method for generating a signal are provided. The oscillator comprises an electro-mechanical resonator and a reconfigurable oscillator driver. The reconfigurable oscillator driver starts the oscillator in single-ended mode to avoid latching and transitions the oscillator to differential mode in such a manner as to sustain oscillations therein. The reconfigurable oscillator driver comprises two back-to-back banks of inverters and an adjustable feedback resistor. In single-ended mode, one bank is disabled and the other bank is enabled. To transition to differential mode and improve the quality of the signal, the number of enabled inverters is equalized in both banks.
Claims20
An oscillator, comprising:
- a resonator input configured to receive, from an electro-mechanical resonator, a resonator signal for creating oscillations in the oscillator;
- two back-to-back banks of inverters coupled by a direct current (DC) connection to the resonator input, each of the banks comprising two or more inverters, the inverters programmable to contribute a gain to the oscillations in the oscillator;
- and
- a controller in communication with the banks of inverters, the controller configured to program each of the banks to contribute a different gain to the oscillations in the oscillator when starting oscillations to inhibit the oscillator from latching to a non-oscillatory direct current stable state.
A method for generating oscillations, comprising:
- receiving a signal from an electro-mechanical resonator;
- programming two back-to-back banks of two or more inverters to contribute a different gain to the signal to generate the oscillations and inhibit latching to a non-oscillatory direct current stable state;
- and
- in response to the oscillations reaching a steady amplitude state, reducing the difference between the gain contributed by each of the banks of inverters to improve the phase noise of the oscillations.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.